Diego de Haro

Diego de Haro was the Spanish ambassador to the Papal States during the late 15th century. In September 1492, he presented Pope Alexander VI and the College of Cardinals with a map of Christopher Columbus' discoveries in the New World, and he asked the Pope to confer papal legitimacy upon Spain's claims to sovereignty. Cardinal Jorge da Costa laughed, and De Haro reminded him that his country of Portugal had twice refused to send the expedition; Da Costa retaliated by calling Columbus a "cheese dealer". The Pope decided to confer papal legitimacy in exchange for Queen Isabella of Castile's approval of the marriage of Maria Enriquez de Luna to Juan Borgia the Younger and the augmentation of his Duchy of Gandia with the Marquisate of Denia and a lordship in Granada. He also chose to decide the issue of the rivalry between Spain and Portugal fairly, drafting the Treaty of Tordesillas to divide the "uncivilized world" between the two nations.